so im not writing this to open any old wounds but i am new to this site and i wanted to be able to state my opinions and research w/o digging through older posts. i want to talk about homosexuality in the bible. first off the funny thing is that the word homosexuality, or any specific word to apply to gay persons, didnt appear until 1869 in Germany. but that is merely a side note. the first time something of a homosexual nature appears in the bible occurs after the story of noah, when ham reveals his father's nakedness when noah is passed out in a drunken stupor, and when awaking noah curses ham and his descendants, the canaanites. now this can be seen as a mere curse on ham, but what of some of the aftereffects. the canaanites encouraged male prostitution during their religous rituals, which the bible opposes (Gen 9:22-25). but the question is does the bible oppose it for being a homosexual act or as condemnation as it being a result of a curse on the father of canaan. secondly i would like to bring up a major law within that the old testament, the law of hospitality, or if you would, welcoming the stranger. there are two stories in the OT that relate to this. the first being the story of sodom and gomorrah (Gen 19:1-11). lot offers the angels hospitality and the men outside the house ask for them to be sent out so that they may know them. now the know part may be sexually based or not, but either way these people were encroaching on the hospitality law. on another side note, i suppose it was perfectly alright for lot to offer up his daughters, i mean they were only women (do not miss the sarcasm). the second story of hospitality is of the levite at Gibeah (judges 19:1-20:7). the levite is given hospitality by a man, and then the townspeople gather and again break the law of hospitality by demanding the man be sent outside. too bad the concubine gets the short end of the stick. so within the old testament the controversy is mainly over whether the the people were punished for being homosexuals, or for being unhospitable. moving on to the new testament, first i would like to say that within greek the word for homosexual does not exist, in any form, so whenever it appears it is due to a lenient interpretation. in romans the issue for paul is more about lustful desires, starting with idolatry, which is seen as lustful, and he even calls the sex acts lustful and shameless (romans 1:26-27). so i believe that speaks more of lust, then of the love between two individuals. in 1cor 6:9-10 it speaks of sexual perverts, as a literal traslation, which has also been seen to mean homosexuals. during the time of paul there was a thing known as pederasty in which an older male took a young boy who looked like a girl as his partner, and over time this practice degenerates to the point where the older man would not release the boy when he became a tenn, but would continue to cause the boy to look feminine as he grew older. so paul would not have only seen this as exploitation but as a perversion. that is all i care to get into for the moment, and no i do not believe that homosexuality is wrong, or a sin, except in the same ways heterosexuality can become sinful.

Post edited by: yourenotme, at: 2007/02/20 14:05

You make some good points. I would recommend starting Abraham's story back in chapter 17, when we can see that he was circumcised. Yet on (what is generally accepted as) the third day after this, considered the most painful time for an adult who is circumcised, we see in Chapter 18:1-8 the great hospitality that Abraham had. Had he decided "I'm hurting, I'll rest and tomorrow I will prepare to show hospitality to the stranger." things might have gone much differently. As to the homosexuality issue, I know some gay people who aren't just trying to piss G-d off. I tried to find it, my flesh wants them to be like anyone else, and in flesh, they are. But I can find no support for any sex outside of marriage, and biblically speaking, marriage is clearly between a man and a woman.